Quality assurance of manufacturing for microwave amplifiers used in space applications

Abstract

This thesis explores various manufacturing and testing methods to produce a quality assurance method for the manufacturing of ultra-low noise microwave amplifiers. This was done using three different sources of information being a literature review dimensional 3D analysis and an expert interview along with comparing and combining information using the triangulation method. From this several results were found that the key components of the microwave amplifier were the fit tolerance between the housing plates, the ceiling of the device itself, positioning of the filters respect to the depth of the cavity and the gold coating. To achieve these careful measures were required before, during, and after manufacturing were required. For this aluminium 6061 was selected as the base material for its ubiquity within space industry. This would then be milled, drilled, and tapped being verified with the use of a touch probe and various micrometres to ensure the critical tolerances. After which a zincate coating would be applied to then a gold electroplating and would be verified through x-ray spectroscopy. This would then be sealed using silver with a combination of soldering and sintering producing a hermetic seal which would then be tested using a helium leak detector.